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The Finery of Fatland

Vast Greek Revival style Pennsylvania mansion for sale for 56% less than it was marketed for in 2014; it comes with a pub in the basement

An extravagant and somewhat over the top estate in Pennsylvania is on sale for £2.96 million or 56% less than the £6.75 million sum it was listed for back in 2014.

Extending to some 11,377 square foot and consisting of 7 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms, Greek Revival style ‘Fatland’ – originally known as ‘Vaux Hill’ and known as such once again since 1990 – in Lower Providence, Montgomery County dates to circa 1843 and stands on the site of an earlier stone farmhouse. That building served as the headquarters of General George Washington in 1777 and also was used by General Sir William Howe.

Now set on a plot of just 11.29 acres, the Fatland Estate used to be significantly larger but was reduced by land sales to make way for an express highway, a housing development and 154 acres towards the expansion of the Valley Forge National Historical Park.

Barbara Safford speaking at the time of the 2013 sale of the contents of ‘The Fatland Estate’The house as previously furnished

“Decorated in the rich French taste,” the house was stuffed to the brim with European antiques by an insurance tycoon named Robert Safford after he and his wife, Barbara, purchased it in 1990. The couple also altered ‘Fatland’s’ original asymmetrical composition with the addition of a west wing and end pavilion that mirrored the east wing and end pavilion and even added a pub to the building’s basement. After Mr Safford’s death in 2011, the property – which also includes an outdoor pool, tennis court and barn – was put up for sale in 2014 whilst separately, in 2013, Freeman’s auction house in Philadelphia held a sale of contents that netted £2.9 million.

After three years on the market and now with a significantly reduced asking price, Terese Brittingham and Tom McCouch of Keller Williams Realty Group are the agents currently handling ‘The Fatland Estate’s’ listing.

Comments

18 comments on “The Finery of Fatland”

Nobody wants it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Knock the f***er down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Send in the wrecking ball but salvage all that marble first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’d make a fabulous bonfire mates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let’s make that piece of land MAGA again!!!!!!!!!!!!

This kind of wasteful living disgusts me when dear Gerry and Kate McCann are doing so much in their efforts to find their beloved daughter Madeleine. You never do anything to help publicize the campaign to FIND MADELEINE and you allow those mocking it to pollute your space too. Shame on you and shame on you again for sharing information about the selfish rich who do nothing to help FIND MADELEINE. We need to all do what we can to FIND MADELEINE, FIND HER NOW.

The selfish rich includes the McCanns who did not search for their daughter, funded an extension to their house for the reduced family and paid off the mortgage. They also funded a profligate legal action against Goncalo Amaral the policeman who believed there was no abduction and the body of Madeleine McCann was disposed of for some unseemly reason. Most of us agree with him and seek justice for the little girl.

Oh dear, it is something of a paean to new money over-the-top bad taste, isn’t it? And now it’s got an express highway and housing development right next to it. New owners will NOT be getting themselves invited to understated drink spotties by the existing old money neighbours. Good luck to whomever is mad enough to buy.

If the house were somewhere else many sensible people of means would be tempted to buy because it’s a great price despite the disappointing wing. The generous space and the lavish use of marble are surely ample compensation ….. and interior decoration can be remedied. (Amusing snobbish comments from self-imagined “superior” individuals, dear, …. but tedious after a while and best to “dodge” them.)

Beautiful estate at a giveaway price. Your back yard is Valley Forge, where our brave soldiers encamped before throwing out the limeys. Miles and miles of protected woodland and fields. If the new owner is shunned by the main line neighbors they will just have to make their own drinkypoos in the basement pub. Who is Madeline?